三穗金茅 san sui jin mao

Andropogon trispicatus Schultes, Mant. 2: 452. 1824; Eu-lalia argentea Brongniart; E. tristachya (Steudel) Kuntze; Pol-linia tristachya (Steudel) Thwaites; Pseudopogonatherum tri-spicatum (Schultes) Ohwi; Saccharum tristachyum Steudel.

Perennial, tussocky; basal sheaths glabrous. Culms slender, 0.3–1.2 m tall, ca. 2 mm in diam., nodes glabrous, glabrous or infrequently thinly pilose below inflorescence. Leaf sheaths usually glabrous or upper margin pilose; leaf blades linear, 10–40 × 0.2–0.6 cm, abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial surface pilose especially at base, apex finely acuminate; ligule very short, ca. 0.5 mm, margin ciliate. Racemes 3–16, subdigitate or inserted on a short axis to 1.5 cm, 4–15 cm, hairs silvery white; rachis internodes and pedicels ca. 1/2 spikelet length, densely ciliate, hairs longer at apex. Sessile spikelet 2.5–4.5 mm, chestnut brown or purplish; callus hairs short, ca. 0.5 mm; lower glume narrowly oblong-lanceolate, papery, back flat, lower flanks villous, upper keels ciliate, veinless between keels, apex narrowly truncate, entire or bimucronate; upper lemma linear, 2-toothed to about middle; awn 0.7–2 cm. Anthers 2–2.8 mm. Fl. and fr. autumn. 2n = 20.

Grassy mountainsides. Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia].

This slender, small-spiculate species is widespread in tropical Asia and is to be expected elsewhere in S China.